Disability and the Incidence of Unemployment in Kenya

Abstract

An aim of the Persons with Disabilities Act (2003) is to ensure that persons with disabilities access employment. This paper investigates the incidence of unemployment by disability status in Kenya. The empirical analysis in this study employed secondary, cross-sectional data from the 2021 Fin access Household Survey, conducted by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), and Financial Sector Deepening Kenya (FSDK). Separate probit models for persons with disability and persons without disabilities, in which the probability of being unemployed is conditioned on observable characteristics of the individual and household, were estimated. Probit analyses of PWDs and non-disabled persons reveal a positive and statistically significant relationship between gender and unemployment. Unemployment was negatively and significantly related to education, marital status, household headship, and location. Further, age was associated negatively and significantly with unemployment. However, for PWDs, a positive association was seen between ages 55 and 64 and unemployment. Following the regression results, the study employed the Fairlie decomposition technique to examine the unemployment gap between PWDs and non-disabled persons. Gender and location were found to significantly reduce the gap in unemployment between those with and without disabilities. Age and education had mixed contributions to the unemployment gap. Age narrowed the unemployment gap for ages 25-34 and 35-44 but widened for those aged 45-54 and 55-64. The unemployment gap widens significantly for people with only primary school education, whereas it shrinks for those with secondary, vocational, or university education. However, neither marital status nor household headship is significant in explaining the unemployment gap. Based on the research's findings, policy suggestions were made to help bridge the gap in unemployment between persons with and without disabilities.